Measurement of Newton's Constant Using a Torsion Balance with Angular Acceleration Feedback

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel torsion balance method with angular acceleration feedback for measuring Newton's gravitational constant G, significantly reducing uncertainties and improving measurement precision.

Contribution

Introduces a new torsion balance technique that minimizes common uncertainties, enabling more accurate determination of G, Earth's mass, and Sun's mass.

Findings

Measured G with high precision: (6.674215 ± 0.000092)×10^-11 m^3kg^-1s^-2

Derived Earth's mass as (5.972245 ± 0.000082)×10^24 kg

Calculated Sun's mass as (1.988435 ± 0.000027)×10^30 kg

Abstract

We measured Newton's gravitational constant G using a new torsion balance method. Our technique greatly reduces several sources of uncertainty compared to previous measurements: (1) it is insensitive to anelastic torsion fiber properties; (2) a flat plate pendulum minimizes the sensitivity due to the pendulum density distribution; (3) continuous attractor rotation reduces background noise. We obtain G = (6.674215 +- 0.000092)x10^-11 m^3kg^-1s^-2; the Earth's mass is, therefore, M = (5.972245 +- 0.000082)x10^24 kg and the Sun's mass is M = (1.988435 +- 0.000027)x10^30kg.